Hello everyone I'm Drago and I'm new to this whole thing but it's something I wanted to get into, if I'm missing something please let me know, here's the disclaimer. I don't own anything from mass effect except my OC's, with that let's start the story
1000 years after the awakening of the first human pathfinder, the Galaxy of Andromeda has become everything the initiative dreamed it would be, outposts became colonies, which became cities. Every world was filled with life and prosperity. Since the defeat of the Kett, the races of not only the Milky Way travelers, but the Angara too have inhabited these new worlds, as their numbers have grown.
Our story starts on the Remnant construct of Meridian, in a school called Ryder Elementary. A human and Salarian child are walking home, keeping their heads down and eyes peeled for the trouble they knew was coming their way. The races themselves have lived in harmony for centuries, but children will be children. The human, 8 year old Aaron Kaine and Salarian 9 year old Fostan Nuzu, have been friends since Aaron's parents were transferred from Eos to Meridian for his father's work.
The two boys stopped as they knew they were in trouble when they saw two figures walk out a few feet ahead of them in an alleyway. A Turian and Krogan, both just a year ahead of them and both girls. The Turian was Actina Marcenis, her father Caivus Marcenis was the instructor for the Meridian Enforcer Academy. Each planet had one, but the way it was built, it looked more like a base. She was already tall, even at ten years old the Krogan child beside her was Tersan Heska, best friend of Actina and daughter of the schools principal. The two older girls approached the boys with a hungry look on their face, like they were about to chew these boys and spit them out.
Actina was first to spit an insult "you know for a race brimming with smarts, you'd think they would have fixed whole not living past 40 years thing" Tersan piped in, getting behind the human child "And after this long you'd think humans would grow a thicker skin, literally!" She pushed the boy down and kept pushing till he was lying face into the dirt she pointed out a scrape on his bloody elbow "Man, how do you manage to keep that stuff inside you in the fist place?" A shop keeper saw this and opened his door, yelling and approaching the girls "Hey! That's enough of that!" This startled the girls and they ran in separate directions.
The strange man helped the boy to his feet, to Aaron's surprise, it was another Turian. Usually Turians are known for their militaristic and disciplined way of living, some go into the research field and fewer chose to farm or sell wares. "Go on home guys, that's enough excitement for one day" the man says. The child nods and thanks the stranger "Thank you mister!" The human boy looks back, and waves, it's the last time he will see that man.
As the years went on, Aaron and Fostan grew apart as Fostan went on to advanced classes, and was stuck with Actina and Tersan, they sat behind and beside him just to make life hard on him. Tersan made sure to be on team opposite of Aaron when it came to contact sports in Physical Education, she enjoyed being superior to everyone, especially him, he never figured out why though. Actina stopped paying attention to them, focusing on her studies. The time came when all of them had to choose a career choice, Aaron and Fostan were outside the bathroom talking about the big day.
"You're going for captain right? You wanted to travel around the universe right?" Aaron asks, their dream was to serve on the same ship and make up for lost time, they didn't hang out much since Fostan's parents died. He kept to himself for about four years, he came to the conclusion that "a tenth of my life was spent moping around, and over a fourth of it is over, I have to move on if I want to live as much life as my parents did." That was three years ago, they were seventeen now, Fostan would be eighteen in another two months, almost of legal age to start flying.
"Of course, I hope you still have a passion for adventure as well, pathfinder?" This was a joke between the two, the initiative had been replaced by the Settlement. And there were no more pathfinders, due to everything already being discovered. All Aaron would talk about when he was younger was how cool it would've been to be a pathfinder, discovering a new home for all those who left everything behind. Now there are Strike team Captains who call the shots against pirates and outlaws. "Real talk though, you really want to be a striker?" This was a term used for a member of a strike team. Actina overheard the conversation as she was walking by, she turned and looked at Aaron.
"You're not serious, right? I know you're weak, but I didn't think you were stupid too. You won't last five minutes out in space, stay here where it's safe and you might make to adulthood." With that she faces forward and walks away. Fostan nudges Aaron.
"Don't worry about it, you won't need a gun once you show them what you can do with biotics alone, you'll be a prime striker candidate" Aaron punched his friend in the arm "Hey! my brain is the only muscle I have, so take it easy!"
"I told you to keep my biotic training secret you big brained idiot!" Aaron said in a hushed and slightly irritated voice. Fostan looked at him.
"I'm aware of you're concern but it wouldn't hurt for certain people to know you're not as weak as they think"
"Let them think what they want, they're not entirely wrong though, I do need to get stronger. It'll take time but I'll get there." An announcement over the intercom started playing, it was the principal.
"All students report to class for career choosing, anyone not in attendance will get whatever is left over." The two looked at each other before racing down the hall to get to their classroom, hopeful they'll serve on the same ship like they always wanted.
Thank you for reading, I didn't want to continue the Ryder story because the game is too new and we don't know how far the single player campaign will go, that and I always wanted to create my own mass effect story and Sheppard's timeliness didn't appeal to me as much. anyway that's chapter one, got a couple days off so I'll be working on it, thanks again and I'll see you guys soon! (also it's my first time doing something like this so any helpful criticism is welcome)